Patrick Davey

Beautiful models Ken!!!!

5mm foam board is my new favourite material for landscaping. It’s cheap (4 huge sheets currently £12.00 at Hobbycraft), easily cut with a sharp blade and assembles with PVA. Structures are very light and very rigid, an ideal base for building up the terrain.

Getting very excited to bring Brookhall Mill to the Ulster Model Railway Club Exhibition this Sunday, am gutted not to be available on the Saturday to exhibit although I hope to call in towards the end of the day. I'm planning a running sequence that starts in the 1940s and ends in the 1970s, and as well as my own stock, I will have the pleasure of running some incredible scratch built locos & rolling stock including ballast wagons, an NIR brake van and ex-BCDR diesel No. 2 all made by Gareth Brennan, a rare NIR MPD and other items built by Kieran Lagan, as well as @Tullygrainey (Alan Nixon)'s stunning BCDR models, the first time these have been seen in public as far as I know!! Here's what will hopefully be running on Brookhall Mill: 1940s GNR(I) 442t T2 No. 64 & 440 U class No. 205 NCC Jinty No. 18 A range of BCDR locos 1950s CIE ‘Woolwich’ 460 & A class A30 UTA UG No. 49 UTA AEC railcar Nos. 111 & 115 UTA (ex-BCDR) diesel No. 2 1960s CIE B188 & A15 1970s NIR MPD unit NIR Hunslet No. 101 'Eagle' CIE 132 With the following operations: GNR(I): Brookhall Mill staff shuttle, goods workings NCC: goods workings from the NCC via Antrim BCDR: goods workings from the BCDR via Belfast Central line or Banbridge CIE: goods workings & passenger excursions from the south UTA: Brookhall Mill staff shuttle, goods workings NIR: Brookhall Mill staff shuttle, goods workings And a 'ceremonial' final working featuring NIR Hunslet 101 'Eagle', a restored linen van and NIR brake van There will also be a range of complementary road vehicles to match the era. Really looking forward to this!!!

Lovely stuff!!!

I saw another thread there mentioning directional cab lights on the IRM A class, so maybe I have missed this question as I am a DCC 'newbie'.... Is there an issue with the A class cab lighting function? I have been trying to illuminate the cabs without success, although I got them to illuminate by accident on A3r one time and can't recall which button(s) I pressed on my NCE PowerCab....? It definitely wasn't the F12 that it should be? TIA

Enjoyed that!

Still no countdown widget on the IRM website............

I usually post material like this on Facebook but I thought it would be of interest to members here! Sometimes you discover old railway locations when you aren’t actually looking for them….and that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday! I am on a short break with my family in Glenravel in Co. Antrim and behind the house where we are staying I saw what initially appeared to be an overgrown stone building on a laneway. I later spotted a mirror image structure opposite the first one and quickly realised it was a pair of railway bridge abutments. I am however quite a distance away from the former narrow gauge ‘main’ line from Ballymena to Parkmore but I knew there had been many industrial sidings in the area serving a once extensive iron ore industry, so a quick perusal of Google Earth confirmed that I had stumbled upon one of these, what a result! I won’t have access to my own library for a few days but the owner of the house kindly let me see a comprehensive local history publication, which has a lot of information about the narrow gauge railway and the iron ore industry and from consulting this I believe the siding I have found is one which ran from Knockanully station (later renamed Martinstown) up to iron ore mines at Mount Cashel. Local history books truly are are a ‘mine’ of information! Sadly the iron ore industry and indeed the narrow gauge railways in this beautiful part of County Antrim are but a distant memory.

Welcome Stuart - great to hear of your journey and am with you there on the OO Works 'catalyst' factor, same thing happened to me (look at my profile picture for example......) Looking forward to seeing more - don't be a stranger!

Lovely stuff above, thanks folks. @leslie10646 https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/9334-brookhall-mill-a-gnri-micro-layout/?do=findComment&comment=205480 Videos of upgraded T2 with Adams Radial chassis, expertly modified and installed by Alan @Tullygrainey

We’re raven now.

This reminds me, I need to get some flock for the scenics.

Let osprey that this ends soon.

What have I started. Gannet get any worse……

They are going to be delivered shortly by a chap called Albert Ross

What could be better than a Crossley sounding locomotive……. Yip - 2 of ‘em!!! IMG_2503.MOV

In the late 1950s, the signal cabin at Clogherhead was closed as a cost-cutting measure, as traffic started to decline. The point rodding was disconnected and individual levers were provided for each turnout, along with a small two-lever ground frame for the double slip. Traffic didn’t actually decline all that much and the decision to close the cabin was very much regretted.

Funny you should mention it Alan……..

Orchestral manoeuvres or a cacophony of sound…….? 1. A class - Crossley 2. 121 class 3. A class - EMD IMG_2461.MOV

I enjoyed the great pleasure of another visit to Loughan Quay this morning, where I met Alan’s incredible BCDR No. 29 scratch build for the first time, folks this model really has to be seen to be believed, none of the attached photographs really do it justice! I am also very grateful to the BCDR management at the quay who arranged for three of their locomotives to line up for a photo shoot Very special thanks also to Alan, who cleaned the remains of the chinchillas out of my A46 diesel!

A3r casts her headlights over the newly laid track at Clogherhead

Ha only catching up on this now!! Thank you @Horsetan for the advice and Alan @Tullygrainey for the hard work!!! The wonder of this forum never disappoints!!!

The curse of impatience strikes again....... one should have the sense not to run one's beautiful dark green A class loco A46 on one's new layout until the blasted PVA-soaked chinchilla dust has fully dried....... Anyway I now have lots of Kellogg-esque crunching noises coming from the loco and Alan (Tullygrainey) of this parish has kindly taken her to clean her out for me. Can anyone tell us how the base keeper plates are removed from underneath the bogies? TIA

Am really enjoying exploring the digital functions of the re-engined A class - tonight I (by accident) found the cab lights and main headlight (how did the originals not have these fitted!) as well as the station announcements - nicely done but probably not something I will be able to make use of!

OK just worked out what happened here - this batch of chinchilla was actually part of a batch I coloured slightly darker for use as a platform surface!!! I have just found the rest of it and it's really sandy looking